AfriForum collected tonnes of products as well as funds in cooperation with various other organisations to support farmers who were affected by the recent destructive fires in the Free State.
The public delivered thousands of boxes with tinned food, long-life milk, toiletries, sugar, flour, coffee, tea, rusks and medicine to AfriForum’s head office in Centurion over the past few days.
The first trucks loaded with these boxes will be sent to the Free State on Saturday, where at least 100 000 hectares of pasture were destroyed by fire in among others Dealesville, Hoopstad, Bultfontein, Warrenton and Boshof. From there, the goods will be distributed by local agricultural organisations to farmers who were affected by the fires.
AfriForum has already collected more than R4,5 million in cooperation with other organisations such as Agri NW, Free State Agriculture, Caring Daisies, Gift of the Givers, Saai, the Solidarity Helping Hand, TLU North-West, Vuilskapie, Boeredroogtehulp SA, Save the Sheep, Droogte Hulp and Boere in Nood. These finds will be utilised to support farmers where there is severe need. Hundreds of tonnes of fodder has already been sent or is currently being delivered.
“The reaction to AfriForum call fir support to farmers is overwhelming. We are grateful to every person, company and institution who opened their hearts and wallets to support farmers who lost almost everything in the fires. The donations from the public enabled us to help these farmers,” says Henk Maree, the spokesperson for and coordinator of AfriForum’s Box for a Farmer project. “After the devastation that the fires caused there, one simply cannot but do everything possible to help them. The damage is indescribable.”
Friday 30 October was the last day on which people could deliver boxes to AfriForum’s head office. Maree says that the food donations are more than sufficient to take care of the current needs of the farmers. In the next week the various organisations will continue to support farmers by providing fodder.
